Retail bookstores and other retailers provide a convenient environment in the form of physical retail store locations for consumers to browse products prior to making a purchase. The store locations typically have many different products on display so that a consumer can examine and compare products before making a purchasing decision. Many of these retailers make most, if not all, of their revenue from in store sales.
However, the advent of wireless electronic devices, such as smartphones and mobile computers, allow consumers to browse products in a retail store location but purchase the product outside of the retailer's environment. For example, a consumer shopping for books at a bookstore may find a book to purchase. While in the bookstore, the consumer may use a wireless electronic device to browse an Internet Web site of a different merchant to purchase the same book or a digital version of the book. In this example, although the retailer provided the shopping environment that led to the book purchase, the retailer would not share in the revenue or profits of the purchase. As the percentage of Internet purchases continues to grow and the number of consumers carrying wireless electronic devices also continues to grow, retailers having physical retail locations need a means to capitalize on in-store Internet purchases in order to avoid losing significant revenue.